Three Rings: Past Present Future
by strangertrack
Summary: Byakuran now wears three rings and Shouichi is hard-pressed to say which one he resents the most. Shouichi's choice, after the Vongola's defeat.


Link to Russian and Vietnamese translations available in my profile.

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**Three Rings: Past-Present-Future**

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Byakuran now wears three rings and Shouichi is hard-pressed to say which one he resents the most.

The mare sky ring is the one that started it all. It gives Byakuran the power to shape the world in his own image, devouring countless lives in the process. It's the ring that turned selfish possibilities into alarming reality, his raised middle finger to the world. Fuck free will. People will kneel down before him or be crushed under his boots, for the ring elevates Byakuran to a god above mortals.

Uni and her family, mere puppets now.

Vongola and his guardians, mere corpses now.

Shouichi can't decide who made the smarter choice.

His stomach hurts thinking about it, insides twisting as he waits for Byakuran to demand an answer, his own personal choice.

"Hey, Shou-chan." Byakuran's voice invites him to look up, sweet and cloying like those snacks he has an insatiable appetite for. Shouichi can't stand that voice. His nerves fray in anticipation of it turning hard and cold before consigning him to his death.

_Like an owner putting down a pet who has turned and bitten the hand that fed it._

"What can I do to make you like me?"

Byakuran is a master at catching him off guard, throwing his whole world off-course and re-gravitating it around him.

Shouichi remains silent, not stalling for time but unable to answer.

"Shou-chan." Byakuran's voice doesn't get impatient and sharper, like Shouichi expects. It turns into almost-pleading. "Answer me."

Shouichi opens his dry mouth, clears his throat awkwardly. His jaw works up and down but still, nothing comes out. His voice refuses to work, has perished along with the Vongola and any hopes of stopping this monster, this abhorrence to the world who is gently threading his fingers through Shouichi's own.

Shouichi represses a shudder as he drops his gaze from those imploring eyes back down to the decorated hands. The usurped Vongola sky ring is held captive beside the mare ring, married to Byakuran's finger like sulky, frigid wife. It testily refuses to accept its neighbor or its new owner, bristling with rejection, but Byakuran doesn't seem to mind.

Shouichi had once believed in that ring, in its rightful owner. Now, it serves as a miserable reminder of the Vongola's demise and his own naivete. It crackles upon contact, as if condemning Shouichi for being alive when everyone else was dead.

"Are you thinking of him, Shou-chan?" Byakuran asks, and this time, there's a definite edge in the question.

"..." Shouichi shakes his head in denial.

___You know how to hurt him. Every man has his weakness and his weakness is you. Bite down hard on your tongue, choke on your own blood, and with your last dying breath, tell him you utterly despise him, that your suicide is his fault. Don't you want to see that tormented look on his face, paint his expression with regret and carve that wretched memory into his brain? Wouldn't it be so satisfying, knowing that you've gotten to him in a way no one else can?_

And then an even more cynical voice: _Who are you kidding? You're merely a toy. He'll shake his head and tsk at the mess poor Shou-chan made then dismiss you from his thoughts. You're not part of his family, you never were. He had the real funeral wreaths lined up all along._

Shouichi doesn't realize how hard he's bitten down on his bottom lip until Byakuran kisses him, tongue lapping broken skin and continuing bloody into Shouichi's mouth.

And in this moment, he cannot avoid the ugly truth. Byakuran doesn't need to do anything; Shouichi already loves him. It's Shouichi who is clinging to Byakuran, is desperately afraid of losing him.

Taking responsibility for how Byakuran turned out. What a joke. Byakuran would have been Byakuran even without him. Wasn't it his own conceit to think that his existence meant something to Byakuran, that it had affected Byakuran in some meaningful way? Wasn't it his own wishful thinking that had fabricated the link between them, ugly as it was?

"Don't make that face, Shou-chan," Byakuran murmurs in his ear. "It makes me want to cry, too."

"Byakuran-san." His voice sounds strange, cracking with disuse. "Will you do me a favor?"

"I'll consider it."

"I want one of your rings."

Byakuran frowns in puzzlement but doesn't reject the request. "Hm... I guess I could part with one. But you can't use either sky rings, you know." His face brightens in pleasure. "Ah, maybe you want the sun ring? Daisy might kick up a fuss but we have the Vongola ring now. Although if Shou-chan really wanted it, you could have both."

"I don't want any of those."

The Vongola ring is a relic of the past and the mare ring is the beacon of this present.

The last ring Byakuran wears is a symbol of the future. It is this ring that Irie Shouichi desires, even though it holds no physical power.

"Uni-chan will be mad, you know," Byakuran chuckles, completely unconcerned as he slides off the wedding band and hands it over. "She has her pride, even if the marriage was a matter of politics."

"I'm sure you'll think of something to tell her."

In the end, there is no choice, there never was.

Resist as he may, Shouichi had known all along that this was where he would end up. In Byakuran's bed, trapped in his arms, the promise of their future together curled protectively in his fist.

xxxxx

**The End.**

xxxxx

June 13, 2009


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